Cornell students and faculty will present “SHED: An Evening of Intermedia Dance in Three Episodes,” an evening-length program of choreography accompanied by students’ original music and projections. The culmination of a year-long study of “New/Futurism: Installation, Intermedia, Interactive & Immersive Dance,” the performance also features the work of influential choreographer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) and highlights collaboration among art forms.
The event – the 2025 Annual Spring Dance Presenting Series – will take place April 25-26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Reserve a free ticket here.
“SHED” is comprised of three dance pieces, each about 15 minutes in length. Performing and media arts dance faculty members Danielle Russo and Olive Prince each choreographed one piece. The third piece is an arrangement of choreography by Merce Cunningham. As a whole, the performance explores cycles of technological revolution and the existential transcendence, and at times, ruin and debris that can follow, said Russo, assistant professor of the practice in performing and media arts in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S).
“In 2024-25 we have been investing in programming work at the intersection of dance performance, technology and new media,” Russo said. “We are encouraging our students to not only consider how they are experimenting, exploring and cross examining this intersection in their own practice, but also a broader psychocultural, socio-political conversation, as well.”
The three pieces are arranged in a tight collaboration that explores Merce Cunningham’s influential innovation – and rule-breaking – for concert dance, both in the field and at Cornell, where he and his company have a longstanding legacy, Russo said.
Eleven student dancers will perform “50 Looks etcetera,” a Merce Cunningham MiniEvent arranged and staged by Patricia Lent, co-director of the Merce Cunningham Trust. A dancer in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 1984 to 1993, Lent was a visiting guest artist in Ithaca this semester, sharing first-hand knowledge of the choreographer’s legacy, as well as Cunningham’s archival material – notes and videos that give insight to his process and previous performances.
“The arrangement of ‘50 Looks’ and ‘Assemblage’ we’re doing is unique,” Lent said, referring to two dances composed by Cunningham. “It’s never been done before. Everyone’s been really engaged and working hard. It’s been fun.”
Cunningham, who is famous for his innovative collaborations, didn’t set these dances to specific music or staging, giving Lent and the students freedom in making this production. Eliot Burke, a graduate student in music composition, created original music and sound, as well as original video projection related to Cunningham’s notes.
Russo’s original work, “Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks,” references Adolf Huxley’s “Brave New World.” Prince, visiting lecturer in performing and media arts (A&S), created a piece titled “Residue” for the performance.
“In my piece, we’re dealing with the concepts of ruin – nature and architecture and the human body and human connection,” Prince said. “We’re also working and collaborating with a group of students who composed the music.”
All three dance pieces model collaboration across disciplines, Russo said. Student composers and projection designers came from students studying Technology in Music Performance, a course taught by Kevin Ernste, associate professor of music (A&S), and Warren Cross, the Resident Sound Designer for the Department of Performing and Media Arts (A&S).
In addition, Becky Lee, a graduate student in electrical engineering, contributed a motion sensor device. Two dancers will wear the devices in part of the performance, triggering visual displays.
“SHED” asks the audience to consider what it means to live in an unprecedented technological revolution while remaining embodied, Russo said. “There’s an unconscious play with technology in ways that infiltrate how see the world, the ways we navigate the world and also how we engage with each other.”
Dancers appearing are Nicholas DeMayo, Ashley Dorais, Michael Fitzdale, Molly Flanagan, Anna Rose Holloway, Molly Hudson, Jini Li, Cate Moore, Sara Mettner, Taylor Janeen Pryor and Avery Wang, in multimedia collaboration with Zeke A. B. Lawrence, Eliot Burk, Adowyn Safon Ernste, Annika Elizabeth Currie and Jane Chen. The evening also showcases original scenic design by Nick Embree, visiting associate professor (A&S); costume design by Sarah Bernstein, senior lecturer (A&S); and lighting design by Steve TenEyck.
This event is made possible by The Merce Cunningham Trust in part with the support of the Department of Performing and Media Arts and curricular collaboration with the Department of Music (both A&S) and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering.
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